The offer is cash for replacement of old t12 fluorescent fixtures with new energy saving t8 type fixtures, exit signs, and timers. Offer is good for purchases made between Oct. 7, 2010 and Dec. 10, 2012. All the details and the rebate application are online at the BVE website http://www.bves.com/. or call 909-866-4678.
We installed the new t8 fixtures when we took the new space back in 2007 just to save on utilities (we operate at about 60% of the previous tenants electricity consumption) and would have qualified for the full $5,000 per year BVE is offering today.
Ouch!
Rebates are for up to $95.00 per fixture and would be verified by BVES before rebate check would be cut.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Economic Development, Low Income Housing and Elections
Business failures too many to mention, chronic commercial vacancies, home and business property foreclosures everywhere you look. Drive around town and that’s what you’ll see, if you’re looking. Yes, there is the slower economy, but it’s a fact our local retail economy has been in serious decline since before the end of the home building boom in 2007. Yes, there has been some new commercial development in the past decade, but no economic growth in retail and with all the private home rentals, the lodging sector is a mess. There is unlimited potential for improvement of our tourism based local economy.
The success of our community is measurable by the quality of life we can offer residents and the vitality of our local businesses, the level of permanent, year-round employment in good pay jobs and the level of income local employment provides. Whether you’re a skilled tradesman, line cook, hospitality worker, day care giver, mechanic, shop keeper or accountant, we are all connected to and reliant on our local economy.
I applaud the City Council for recent action through the City’s Redevelopment Agency implementing our Façade and Sign Improvement Program. The Program grants Redevelopment Agency funds for qualifying Commercial Property Improvements. This is long overdue and is a good example of the things we can do and are at long last, getting done. Spending some of the millions of dollars in our Redevelopment Agency Fund incentivizing property owners to update storefronts is one reason the taxpayers voted to form the agency more than 20 years ago. However, this and the other programs recently put into place to aid small business will not by themselves bring about a more robust local economy. Our redevelopment goals need to be part of a greater economic development plan. We can improve our economic reality in a meaningful way, and maintain our environment and lifestyle standards, for the long term.
Absence of a clear vision for the future and the lack of community economic development goals allow us to be endlessly engaged in every issue that would be addressed in a good plan. Hopefully, a good plan and excellent communication would minimize the endless debates or at least make some development less contentious. The absence of a plan allows us to become engaged to distraction with hot-button issues like low income housing, private home rentals, and other development and quality of life issues instead of focusing on needed improvements and meeting goals that would benefit the entire community.
Economic development will require focus. Results will mean meeting clear goals we set for underpinning a vibrant small business community, creating good pay jobs for those struggling to provide for families, and creating opportunity for our young people that will allow them to contribute and earn a good living in the community they grew up in. This plan needs to reflect our local values and should be crafted by those with concerns and experience in business, finance and the environment. A citizen led plan, not one stamped out by bureaucrats and administrators.
A comprehensive plan for the future is the key to any real success. Our plan needs to be led by economic development goals, dovetailed with our environmental needs, aesthetic and lifestyle values and governed by our available resources and ultimate capacity.
To force low income housing development in advance of a comprehensive plan that includes clear goals for economic development seems to me a mistake and a symptom of our failure to adequately plan. This can be corrected.
Continued piecemeal rezoning and placement of low income housing to meet State housing law in lieu of fitting housing into a well thought out master plan will be detrimental to our future success. Big Bear Lake has very limited and finite land available for critical uses. Low income housing is just one need. No rezoning of commercial land should be considered without equal rezoning to replace the commercial zoned inventory.
Before the City Council election in November I would like to hear clearly, from each candidate, that they have the ability and the will to state and uphold a policy that favors the community by committing to economic development. I believe most all folks will be able to understand the need to plan our future. The City Council can put economic development and comprehensive planning for the future on the fast track, and empower our citizens to take part in their own futures with the establishment of an Economic Development Commission made up of non-elected individuals that don’t serve on other commissions or agencies.
The success of our community is measurable by the quality of life we can offer residents and the vitality of our local businesses, the level of permanent, year-round employment in good pay jobs and the level of income local employment provides. Whether you’re a skilled tradesman, line cook, hospitality worker, day care giver, mechanic, shop keeper or accountant, we are all connected to and reliant on our local economy.
I applaud the City Council for recent action through the City’s Redevelopment Agency implementing our Façade and Sign Improvement Program. The Program grants Redevelopment Agency funds for qualifying Commercial Property Improvements. This is long overdue and is a good example of the things we can do and are at long last, getting done. Spending some of the millions of dollars in our Redevelopment Agency Fund incentivizing property owners to update storefronts is one reason the taxpayers voted to form the agency more than 20 years ago. However, this and the other programs recently put into place to aid small business will not by themselves bring about a more robust local economy. Our redevelopment goals need to be part of a greater economic development plan. We can improve our economic reality in a meaningful way, and maintain our environment and lifestyle standards, for the long term.
Absence of a clear vision for the future and the lack of community economic development goals allow us to be endlessly engaged in every issue that would be addressed in a good plan. Hopefully, a good plan and excellent communication would minimize the endless debates or at least make some development less contentious. The absence of a plan allows us to become engaged to distraction with hot-button issues like low income housing, private home rentals, and other development and quality of life issues instead of focusing on needed improvements and meeting goals that would benefit the entire community.
Economic development will require focus. Results will mean meeting clear goals we set for underpinning a vibrant small business community, creating good pay jobs for those struggling to provide for families, and creating opportunity for our young people that will allow them to contribute and earn a good living in the community they grew up in. This plan needs to reflect our local values and should be crafted by those with concerns and experience in business, finance and the environment. A citizen led plan, not one stamped out by bureaucrats and administrators.
A comprehensive plan for the future is the key to any real success. Our plan needs to be led by economic development goals, dovetailed with our environmental needs, aesthetic and lifestyle values and governed by our available resources and ultimate capacity.
To force low income housing development in advance of a comprehensive plan that includes clear goals for economic development seems to me a mistake and a symptom of our failure to adequately plan. This can be corrected.
Continued piecemeal rezoning and placement of low income housing to meet State housing law in lieu of fitting housing into a well thought out master plan will be detrimental to our future success. Big Bear Lake has very limited and finite land available for critical uses. Low income housing is just one need. No rezoning of commercial land should be considered without equal rezoning to replace the commercial zoned inventory.
Before the City Council election in November I would like to hear clearly, from each candidate, that they have the ability and the will to state and uphold a policy that favors the community by committing to economic development. I believe most all folks will be able to understand the need to plan our future. The City Council can put economic development and comprehensive planning for the future on the fast track, and empower our citizens to take part in their own futures with the establishment of an Economic Development Commission made up of non-elected individuals that don’t serve on other commissions or agencies.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Why Big Bear's Economic Development needs to be a Citizen Led Model
The Redevelopment Wheels are turning in Big Bear Lake and the opportunity for local businesses to prosper and grow are real. More and better jobs are key but growth must be balanced on our meeting economic goals reached for the folks who live and work in our community.
What might make sense for Big Bear might not be attractive to corporate developers and investors. What we need to avoid at any cost is repeating the same strategies other Resort Communities have implemented with negative results in categories other than bottom line results.
More on Vail's Public Relations Problems with it's locals from the Denver Post's Steve Raabe:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14857508
What might make sense for Big Bear might not be attractive to corporate developers and investors. What we need to avoid at any cost is repeating the same strategies other Resort Communities have implemented with negative results in categories other than bottom line results.
More on Vail's Public Relations Problems with it's locals from the Denver Post's Steve Raabe:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14857508
Friday, March 26, 2010
Public Transit: A Monorail from the Village to the Ski Resorts
As City Planners look to the future of Big Bear Lake, a not so new idea keeps minds whirling with visions of some sort of train/tram ride between the Village and the Ski Resorts (maybe as far as Bear Mountain). It's not a great distance so costs won't likely be on the scale of Health Reform, and on busy weekends it would certainly make sense to get folks out of their cars (Big Bear Boulevard) and from here to there much more quickly than the 20-50 minutes it might take you to get from Northwoods Resort to Bear Mountain to pick up kids. And then back again. This one example equates to one Esclade on our streets for almost 2 hours to accommodate 1 or 2 snowboarders. You do the math. We would need 5 or 6 buses to get frequency to 10 minutes on busy weekends, but the trip is still 50 minutes. It's a no-go.
Frequency and convenience seem to be the key for optimum usage and profitability of public transportation whether its the MARTA bus or a state of the art monorail. The goal (I'm sure, and like many other public projects) would be to recoup costs for building the system from ridership and via whatever grants (government subsidies) could be secured for getting cars off the roads, green technology and increased tourism that generates tax revenues for the State.
There is no doubt that if maximum ridership were realized, there would be plentiful quality of life benefits for valley residents and significantly improve the mobility options for year round visitors as there surely won't be any more roads built to alleviate the heavy traffic we all endure during peak visitor days.
This type of solution combined with bike/pedestrian paths connecting Retail, Lodging, the Lake and Forest along with adequate parking for the successful use of these connections, should have a place at the top of the list for our future planning.
Monorails can be found in the following places in North America:
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida - The Walt Disney World Monorail System is one of the world's best-known monorail serves over five million passengers yearly. Disneyland in Anaheim, California - The Disneyland Monorail System is known as the "First daily operating Monorail system in the Western Hemisphere." Seattle, Washington - short monorail (Seattle Center Monorail) built for the Century 21 Exposition in 1962 Hershey, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Hersheypark. Lancaster, Pennsylvania - amusement monorail at Dutch Wonderland . Las Vegas, Nevada - public transit Memphis, Tennessee - a short monorail connects Mud Island in the Mississippi River to Memphis. Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey - people mover connecting terminals, parking lots, and to Amtrak/NJ Transit Northeast Corridor rail station Six Flags La Ronde in Montreal, Quebec - once part of a larger monorail systems built for Expo 67 Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota San Diego Wild Animal Park near Escondido, California. It is the only monorail system in Hawaii. This a fully-operational, homebuilt, backyard monorail was constructed by monorail enthusiast, Kim Pedersen Dallas, Texas - Amusement ride at Dallas Zoo Miami MetroZoo, in Miami, Florida - Connects major exhibits at the zoo.
Criticism and comment about the Las Vegas Tram below:
http://mtcgi.kir.com/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=Las+Vegas+monorail
More on Monorails some above content sourced:
More on Monorails some above content sourced:
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Commercial Real Estate Market Woes are Plenty
In a recent Park City Record article, a commercial banker states that Nationally, commercial real estate values are off more than 40% from their highs (probably a couple of years ago) and relating vacancy and reduced commercial rents as potential exposure for Community Banks holding commercial mortgages which will be coming due between right now and the next couple of years.
Big Bear Lake would seem to me to have quite a bit in common with the Resort Community of Park City, Utah including the slow economy and the effects of a recession on its Retail and Real Estate Markets.I just saw a large retail space for rent in the local paper for $.30 / sq. ft. This property could definitely qualify as a chronic vacancy (more than one year) as do many of the current available commercial vacancies in the City of Big Bear Lake.
More from the Park City Record below.
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